Folding handle for screw drivers or the like



Sept. 20, 1949. HR. LAND FOLDING HANDLE FOR SCREW DRIVERS OR THE LIKEFiled June 15 194"! v .[m enzor. 079 6014 Q Zanzi Attorney PatentedSept. 20, 1949 FOLDING HANDLE FOR SCREW DRIVERS OR THE LIKE Herbert E.Land, Van Nuys, Calif. Application June 13, 1947, Serial No. 754,513 2Claims. (Cl. 145-50) The. present invention relates to screw drivers orthe like, and the principal object of the invention is to. provide a newand improved handle for tools. of this class which can be changedquickly and easily from a normal position, noaxial with the shank of thescrew driver, to 'a right-angled position providing greatly increasedleverage, for driving screws which turn with. considerable difficulty.The advantage of this arrangement is that with the handle in the normalposition, the screw driver can be turned with greater ease and rapidlyto drive freely turning screws thancanbe done when the handle is in. theright-angled position, whereas when the handle is in the latterposition, a much greater torque can be applied to the screw driver totighten or loosen screws requiring a greater turning eftort, than can beexerted when the handle is. in its normal position.v Thus, the handlecan be changed at will to whichever position is the more. advantageous,depending upon the turning. effort required to drive the screw.

Another objectv of the invention is to provide a handle which can bechanged from. either one of the two positions described to the other bymerely sliding the lower end portion of the handle up or down along theshank of the screw driver. This enables the change to be made veryquickly and without requiring the use of tools.

A Eurther object of the invention. is to provide a screw driver handlecomprising two pairs of members disposed on opposite sides of the shank,which are movable between a first position wherein the members of onepair are contiguous. to one another, and in which the. members are heldtogether in either of said positions by the force of magneticattraction. This object is attained by making the handle members of barmagnets which are oriented so that the adjacent ends of contiguousmembers are of opposite polarity when the members are in either of saidpositions, and are thereby mutually attracted together.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent tothose skilled in the. art upon consideration of the following detaileddescription of the preferred embodiment thereof, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a screw driver having a handleembodying the principles of the invention, showing the handle in itsnormal position;

Figure 2 is an elevational view of the handle,

L4 showing the latter in an intermediate position between its normal andright angled positions;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspective view, showing the handle in theright angled position;

Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line. 4-4 inFigure 1; and

Figure 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line 5-5 inFigure 1.

In the drawings, the screw driver of the invention is designated in itsentirety by the reference numeral I0 and comprises a shank ll having ascrew-engaging portion l2 at one end thereof, and a handle l3 at itsother end. The shank II is preferably, although not necessarily, squarein -cross-section, and the screw-engaging portion 12 may be either aconventional screw driver blade, as shown, or it might take any otherdesired form to engage and drive screws having special drivingconnections. For example, a socket might be used to engage the head of ascrew-threaded bolt to drive the same.

The handle 13 comprises two pairs of elongated, rounded-end members [6,I6 and l1, l1 disposed on opposite sides of the shank. These members aregenerally rectangular in crosssection, and are preferably madeapproximately twice as wide as they are high, so that when any two ofthem are brought together face-to-face, as shown in Figures, 1 and 3,the resulting handle is generally square in cross-section. The edges ofthe members are rounded off to make the handle easier and morecomfortable to grasp, and the outer or back surfaces of the members maybe fluted longitudinally, as at l8, to give a better non-slip grip. Theundersides of the members are formed with longitudinally extending,rectangular grooves or channels IQ of slightly greater width andapproximately onehalf the depth of the shank H, so that when twoopposite members are brought together in thenormal position of'Figure 1,their respective channels cooperate to form a square. hole whichreceives the shank, enabling the portions of op posite members on eitherside of the shank to come. together.

The two members of each pair are arranged end-to-end, and their adjacentends are joined together by a pair of laterally spaced links 20 whichare disposed on either side of the shank II in slots 2| formed in theends of the members. The members l6, l6, l1, and I1 are connected to thelinks 20 by transversely extending pins 22 which are inserted throughalined holes in the members and links. The distance that the pins 22 arespaced apart is such that when the 3 members I6, I 6', I! and l'! are inthe normal position shown in Figure 1, the two members of each pair aresubstantially abutting end-to-end, and when the members are in theright-angled position shown in Figure 3, they are parallel to and incontact with one another.

The upper or free ends of the two top members l6 and II are slotted at23 to receive the laterally projecting ends of a cross head 24 which iswelded or otherwise rigidly fixed to the top end of the shank II, andare pivotally connected thereto by pins 25 extending parallel to pins22. Slidably mounted on the shank II is a generally rectangular slidemember 26 having a hole formed therein of the same cross-sectional shapeas the shank. In the illustrative embodiment, both the hole and shank ll are square, so that the slide member 26 is provented from rotatingwith respect to the shank, although any other of keying the slide to theshank to prevent relative rotation might be used to equal advantage. Theprojecting ends of the slide member 26 are disposed within slots 3|formed in the lower ends of the two bottom members I 6 and I1, and arepivotally connected thereto by pins 32.

When using the screw driver with screws that turn freely, the handle 13is employed in the normal position, shown in Figure 1, which is the moreconvenient and comfortable position for rapid and sustained operation.becomes more diificult to turn, however, the operator merely grasps thelower end of the handle adjacent the slide 26, and pulls upwardly on thesame, folding the members l6, l6, l7 and 17' through the intermediateposition of Figure 2 to the oppositely extending, right-angled positionshown in Figure 3. In this position, with the axis of the handleperpendicular to the axis of the shank, a much greater leverage isobtained, and the hard-turning screw can then be driven with ease. Whenthe screw has been driven up tight and the operator is ready to startdriving another screw which turns freely to begin with, the handle l3can then be returned to its normal position by merely pulling the slideends of the members 15 and I! down to the extended position.

A second aspect of the invention has to do with a novel and effectivemeans for holding the handle in either of its two positions, although itwill be evident that the invention as described thus far is complete initself and fully operative. In order that the handle may be firmly yetyieldingly held in either of its two positions, the members 16, I6, I!and I1 may be made of permanent bar magnets which are oriented so thatwhen the members are positioned either alongside the shank orperpendicular thereto, the ends of the members at the midpoint of thehandle on one side thereof are of opposite polarity to the correspondingends of the members on the other side, and are mutually attractedtogether to hold the handle in the selected position. This condition isillustrated by the designation of the opposite poles of each bar magnetby the letters S and N. Thus it will be noted in Figure 1 that As thescrew .to hold said handle the N pole of member I6 is opposite the Spole of member l1, while the S pole of member I6 is opposite the N poleof member I1. When the handle is in its right angle position as shown inFigure 3, the S pole of member [6 is opposite the N pole of member l6,and the N pole of member I7 is opposite the S pole of member [1. In bothcases, the magnetic attraction of the 0pposite pole is sufficient tohold the contiguous members together, and thereby hold the handle in oneor the other position. The force of magnetic attraction can, of course,be easily overcome by merely grasping the center portions of the handlewith the hand and pulling the same apart.

While I have shown and described in detail what I consider to be thepreferred form of my invention, it will be understood that variouschanges may be made in the shape and arrangement of the several partswithout departing from the scope of the broader claims, appended hereto.

I claim:

1. A screw driver comprising a shank having a screw-engaging portion atone end thereof, and a handle at the other end, said handle comprisingtwo pairs of elongated members disposed on opposite sides of said shank,the members of each of said pairs being arranged end-to-end, link meanspivotally connecting the adjacent ends of the members of each of saidpairs to permit relative swinging movement thereof in a plane includingthe longitudinal axis of said shank, one of the members of each of saidpairs being pivotally connected at its free end to said other end ofsaid shank, a slide non-rotatably and slidably mounted on said shank,the other of the members of each of said pairs being pivotally connectedat its free end to said slide, said pairs of members being adapted to beextended so as to lie alongside said shank to form a handle having itsaxis parallel to the axis of the shank for the rapid driving of freelyturning screws, or folded so as to extend in opposite directions to forma handle having its axis perpendicular to the axis of the shank, wherebya high torque can be applied to the screw.

2. A screw driver as defined in claim 1, wherein the said handle membersare formed of permanent bar magnets which are oriented so that when saidmembers are positioned either alongside said shank or perpendicularthereto, the ends of the members at the midpoint of the handle on oneside thereof are of opposite polarity to the corresponding ends of themembers on the other side, and are mutually attracted together in theselected position.

HERBERT R. LAND.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

